Bundesliga

Second meets third at the BayArena on Sunday, as the two battle it out for what increasingly looks like second place. With Bayern Munich eleven points clear currently, any title aspiration for these two sides is diminishing with every game.

Bayer Leverkusen will be full of confident though as they have won their last five home matches in the Bundesliga.

Borussia Dortmund have started 2013 in impressive fashion, scoring eight goals and keeping two clean sheets. The North Rhine-Westphalia outfit will look to continue that impressive start to 2013 away at Bayer Leverkusen, as they will not want to concede their title easily.

The two teams are similar in terms of style of play, each using a fast paced, counter attack to deadly effect as they look to punish their opponents with every chance. Leverkusen use of André Schürrle and Gonzalo Castro either side of Stefan Kießling has proved an efficient front line. The trio have scored a combined total of 24 goals so far in the Bundesliga. Kießling is currently the Bundesliga’s top goal scorer with thirteen goals.

Werder Bremen welcome Hannover to the Weserstadion on Friday in a game of underachievers so far this season. The two teams are capable of mounting a European challenge, but both have failed to deliver their usual standards this season on a consistent basis.

Werder Bremen are languishing in 12th position currently, without a win in their last four Bundesliga matches, losing three of them.

Hannover are a tough team to beat on home soil, but away from their AWD-Arena is where their problems lie. The Lower Saxony outfit have lost seven of their last nine away matches in the Bundesliga. That poor form is one reason why they are sitting in 10th place in the league.

Only four points ahead of their hosts, but more importantly is that they are just three points outside of the Europa League places. Such is the competitive nature of the Bundesliga, that just eight points separate 15th placed Nürnberg and 6th place Schalke 04.

With the table that close, any kind of form from either Bremen or Hannover, that they are both capable of, could push themselves up the league standings quickly and aim for Europe come the end of the season.

On January 16th, the football world was stunned to learn that after a whole summer of speculation, the legendary Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola would join the Bavarian side FC Bayern Munich in the summer of 2013.

A few years ago, such a move would have been considered impossible. A coach as wildly successful as Pep Guardiola making a move to Germany, even to the most successful club in Germany, would have been almost unthinkable.

But as it stands, Guardiola will not be making the move to England that many had hoped for. So how will the former Barcelona man fare in Germany?

In this article, we will explore the reasons that the Catalan manager made the best choice in going to Die Bayern, and why he will succeed with the Bavarian Giants.

Bayern Have a Similar Style To Barca

Everyone is familiar with Barcelona’s now famous style of football, tiki-taka. The possession based, free-flowing, attacking game is both pleasing to the eye and gets pleasing results for fans.

So when Guardiola tries to get Bayern to play a possession style game, how will they fare? In all likelihood, the Bavarians will excel.

Warm weather training camps are over; fans anticipating their return to the stands. It is the return of the Bundesliga, with a brilliant game to look forward to on Saturday evening.

The Weserstadion will host Werder Bremen against Borussia Dortmund, which promises to be an entertaining, attack minded game.

Werder Bremen are currently languishing in 12th place, with inconsistency their problem this season. Despite looking bright in attack, they have failed to win back to back matches in the Bundesliga this season.

That bright attack is what they will rely on as they seek to gain a positive result against Borussia Dortmund. On loan Chelsea midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has been the star performer for Bremen so far this season, scoring four goals and claiming five assists. With his attack mindedness combined with fellow goal scoring midfielder Aaron Hunt, and Nils Petersen spearheading their attack, the home side will be confident of causing problems to Dortmund’s defence. Petersen, on loan from Bayern Munich, has scored seven goals in the league and will be looking to add to his tally come the weekend.

Schalke 04 will entertain Hannover 96 in the first Bundesliga game of 2013 on Friday, bringing to an end the month long winter break in Germany.

It is also Jens Keller’s first Bundesliga game in charge of Schalke, after the dismissal of Huub Stevens in December. Keller, and the fans, will want Schalke to hit the ground running and get back to winning ways after a poor run of results, which has seen them win only one out of their last eight Bundesliga matches. Whilst the visitors have won only twice on the road in their last 15 away Bundesliga matches.

Last time the two teams met was on the opening weekend of the season, ending in a 2-2 draw at Hannover’s AWD-Arena.